Steeplechase will support Alzheimers group

The Queen’s Cup Steeplechase has partnered with the Alzheimer’s Association Western Carolina Chapter for the 2014 steeplechase.

The organization announced Friday that the Alzheimer’s Association is their 2014 charity partner.

In the past, the steeplechase has sponsored Purple Heart Homes and the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

The organization has a special meaning for the event’s organizers, Bill and Carrington Price.

“The Charlotte Steeplechase Association is proud of our new partnership with the Alzheimer’s Association for a variety of reasons,” Organizer Bill Price wrote in a statement. “Carrington and I both have family members with Alzheimer’s and dementia. It seemed fitting since our major corporate sponsor, BAE Systems, is working hard to protect our troops overseas from significant head trauma and concussions.”

Brian McDonnell, the board chair of the Alzheimer’s Association- Western Carolina Chapter is thrilled about the partnership.

“The Queen’s Cup Steeplechase is a premier event in the region, where fun, family, friends and horse racing come together to make for a day in April you don’t want to miss,” he wrote in an e-mail. “The Queen’s Cup has also quietly done a lot for charitable causes over the years and the Alzheimer’s Assocation is honored to have been selected as their charity partner for the 2014 Queen’s Cup Steeplechase.”

This will be the 19th year of hats, horses and races for the Queen’s Cup Steeplechase, held in Mineral Springs. It will be held Saturday, April 26.

“The Alzheimer’s Association is committed to helping lead the way in the promotion of brain health and the fight against a disease that affects an estimated five million Americans but cannot presently be cured, slowed or prevented. We are very thankful that the Queens’s Cup and its’ sponsors, especially BAE Systems, have joined us in this fight,” McDonnell wrote in an e-mail.

Price wrote in a statement that he thinks it is right right time to bring diseases possibly related to head trauma, like Alzheimer’s, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) and many forms of dementia into the mainstream of conversation. He hopes to do some “serious fundraising” with the Alzheimer’s Association.